NEW YORK - January 8, 2012 - NBC's coverage of last night's New Orleans Saints 45-28 victory over the Detroit Lions earned a 19.3 overnight rating and a 32 share, the third-best overnight for a Wild Card Saturday game since the 1999 playoff season, according to overnight data released today by The Nielsen Company. NBC's two-game Wild Card Saturday average of 17.2/30 is also the third-best since the 1999 playoff season.

The 19.3 for last night's primetime game is down from last year's game in which the Jets defeated the Colts 17-16. That game earned a 20.8/33, the highest-rated Saturday Wild Card primetime overnight ever. This marked the third straight year that the NBC primetime Wild Card game surpassed a 19.0 overnight rating.

The early game, in which the Houston Texans defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 31-10 to earn the first playoff victory in the franchise's history, drew a 15.3 overnight rating and a 29 share. That is down from last year's New Orleans Saints-Seattle Seahawks game (18.3/33) which was the best Saturday Wild Card Game 1 in 20 years.

The two-game average of 17.2/30 is down from last year's two-game average of 19.4/33, the best average for two Saturday Wild Card games since the 1994 season

NBC DOMINATED PRIMETIME: During primetime (8-11 p.m.), NBC averaged a 19.2/33 dominating its competition, delivering more than five times the primetime average of the night's No. 2 broadcast network (ABC, 3.7/6), topping the combined averages of ABC (3.7/6), CBS (2.7/5) and Fox (1.6/3) by 140 percent.